Mabel vs Manliness
by Mertiya
Summary: After the events of Sock Opera, Dipper is awfully quiet. Mabel wants to find out why. Trans Dipper fic.


**Mabel vs. Manliness**

It turns out Dipper's wrist is just bruised, not broken or sprained, which is a relief. He falls asleep on Mabel in the car on the way home from the hospital. The two of them were a little worried that Grunkle Stan would ask how Dipper managed to bruise literally every inch of his wrist, but he doesn't even ask. He probably assumes that it happened during the explosive finale of Mabel's sock opera. Instead, he just gives them an impromptu lesson in insurance scams, which Mabel doesn't really understand and thinks is probably dishonest.

But she's a little too worried about Dipper to try to take her grunkle to task for it. Dipper falls into his bed as soon as they get home and doesn't seem likely to wake up until the next day, so Grunkle Stan and Mabel have dinner without him. It's not quiet, because it's not as if Dipper is really the loud twin, but it's a little empty, and Mabel doesn't like it. When she goes up to the attic to get ready for bed, she notices that he's not sleeping on his back, the way he usually does, but instead is curled up on his side with his knees to his chest. Usually Dipper only does that when he's crying and trying to pretend he's not, but when she sneaks over and peers at him, his eyes are shut, so she doesn't bother him.

When she wakes up the next morning, Dipper's bed has been made, and he's gone. Grunkle Stan is buried sleepily in his newspaper and says he hasn't seen the kid, or at least Mabel's pretty sure that's how to interpret the grunts he makes when she asks if he knows where Dipper is. Mabel purses her lips. Looks like it's time for a Dipper scavenger hunt!

She finds Soos next, lying with his head under the bathroom sink, his legs sticking out.

"Hey, Soos!" Mabel chirps, because this is fun, and she's definitely not worried about Dipper at all. Soos snorts and sits upright all at once. There's a loud clanging noise, and he falls back down.

"Whoa dood," he says, sitting up again, this time more slowly. "What's up?"

"Have you seen Dipper? I need to make sure he's eaten breakfast! I want to make unicorn pancakes, and it's just silly to do that without him!"

"Uh," Soos rubs his head, "no, dood, I've been trying to fix this sink." The sink makes an angry bubbling noise, and Soos dives hurriedly for his wrench. "Sorry dood! I gotta work on this now. I'll help you look for Dipper later if you want."

Mabel frowns. "Okay," she says, only a little dispirited. She runs out of the bathroom and nearly crashes right into a yawning Wendy.

"Good morning, Wendy! You're here early!"

"Yeah, Stan thinks today's gonna be busy, and I still need this stupid job," Wendy sighs.

"Have you seen Dipper?"

"Uh, not this morning."

Mabel lets out a small sigh, but plasters a big smile across her face. "Let me know if you see him, okay?" She's turning to go check the guest room that nearly became Dipper's bedroom a few weeks ago, when Wendy grabs the back of her neck. Mabel's legs are still moving, and she ends up running on air for a couple of seconds before landing again.

"Whoa, hold on there, girl, I didn't say I wouldn't help you look. Have you checked the roof?"

The roof! That's perfect! Why didn't she think of that? She gives Wendy a wide grin. "Let's go!"

Dipper _is_ sitting on the roof, hunched over with his knees drawn up to his chest. The smashed computer is sitting beside him, and his pine tree hat is on top of it. He's got his eyes shut, and he's breathing really hard, which is usually what he does when he's trying not to cry.

"Hiya, Bro-bro," Mabel forces out as she and Wendy head onto the roof. "Have you eaten breakfast yet? I was going to make my famous unicorn pancakes and some Mabel juice if you want—"

"I'm okay, Mabel."

Of course he's okay, and obviously Mabel _knew_ he was okay, but it's still kind of nice to hear it out loud. "Of course you're okay, Bro-bro. You're _always_ okay."

"I was just really afraid that Bill was going to tell everyone about—"

Uh oh. "Wendy came with me on my Dipper scavenger hunt!" Mabel blurts loudly before Dipper can finish his sentence, and Dipper jerks up and nearly falls off the roof. In fact, it's only thanks to Wendy half-diving across the platform and snagging the back of his vest that he doesn't.

"WENDY!" Dipper squeaks wildly. "Hi! Wow, I, uh, wasn't expecting you to be at work this early, and I definitely did not have anything weird happen to me yesterday! Certainly nothing I'd be worried about in any way—"

"Dipper, dude, chill." Wendy sets him back on his feet. "Everybody has secrets they don't want other people to know about. It's cool."

Dipper grabs for his hat and jams it firmly onto his head, then crosses his arms over his chest. "Well, um, cool," he says uncertainly. "Thanks, Wendy."

"No problem," she says cheerfully. "You want me to leave you guys alone for a little?"

Mabel looks over at Dipper, who nods reluctantly. "If you don't mind, yeah…" he trails off, fidgeting with his thumbs.

Wendy flashes him a grin and a thumbs' up, then heads to the side of the roof, before performing her usual jump-and-slide down a nearby pine tree. Dipper manages to smile and wave, before collapsing back into his previous crumpled position. Squatting beside him, Mabel put a hand on his shoulder. "Everything's fine, Dip-dop! Nothing bad happened. Well, except that your arm got bruised up, and the laptop got smashed, and you fell down the stairs, and my sock opera got totally busted, but—"

"I know, I know," Dipper muttered. "But what if Bill had decided to—to tell everyone?"

"Dipper." He turns, and Mabel punches his arm.

"Ow! What was that for?"

"Because you're being really stupid, Bro-bro."

"What? How?"

"Bipper didn't even know about _tickling_. I bet he didn't even _notice_."

Dipper stared at her, his mouth dropping open. "But…" he flounders. "But…"

She pats the arm this time. "You always think it's such a big deal, and it's just not."

"Mabel! It _is_ a big deal! It's who I _am_."

"Your gender's a big deal. Your body's not." Mabel slings her arms around his shoulders. "There are people who don't have legs! Nobody says they're not people."

"It's not the same thing!"

"Do I hafta tickle you?"  
"What? Mabel, no!"

"Too late! Tiiiiiickle!" She pounces on him, and he falls over backwards, laughing and wriggling wildly, slapping at her hands. "C'mon, Dip-dop, let's go have some unicorn pancakes."

Dipper groans and collapses, putting his hands over his eyes. "Mabel, you keep saying I'm not manly and stuff. Like all the time. Can't you please at least take it seriously that Bill could've told everyone that I don't have—"

"Huh? Bro-bro, you're _not_ super manly."

" _Mabel_."

"You're still a _boy_. Jeez."

Blinking up at her from under his hat, Dipper frowns in confusion. "Um. What?"

She rubs the back of her neck. "I guess I didn't even think about it being a problem. Because you're a _boy_ so you don't have to be manly? Because you're a boy anyway. You just _are_. You're my brother. Nothing's going to change that."

Groaning again, he tugs at his hair. "Darn it, Mabel!"

"Is this why you got so weird about the manliness thing in Greasy's Diner?"

"Oh my god, Mabel. _Yes_."

"Ohhhh. I thought you were just being weird." She fidgets. "I thought we were just teasing you as usual because you're dumb and dorky. Sorry, Dipper."

He squints up at her, then sighs. "No, I guess—it's actually kind of reassuring. You thinking I'm enough of a boy that none of the rest of it matters."

"Of course you're a boy," Mabel says solidly. "You're my brother. And Bill didn't tell anyone, and he probably didn't even notice anything weird."

"You really think it's not a big deal?"

"Everybody has weird things about their bodies. You should listen to Soos sometime. Oh, and Grunkle Stan gave me this horrible talk about puberty when he thought I was you?" She shudders. "That sounds _really_ weird."

"And I have to deal with puberty in this—this—" Dipper waves his hands up and down his front. "Not! Helping!"

"C'mon, Bro-bro, you know you panic about everything. Mom and Dad will help."

"I panic about perfectly valid, intelligent concerns!"

She ruffles his hair. "No, you don't. Seriously. Pancakes?"

"Ugh. Fine."

"I'll make you SUPER MANLY pancakes, okay? What's super manly? Trains? I could make you train pancakes!"

"Uh, Mabel…"

"Oooh, I could make you _lumberjack_ pancakes, and you could share with Wendy." She claps her hands together. "You and Wendy could—"

He slaps the palm of his hand into his forehead. "You _know_ that's not going anywhere!"

"Okay, okay," Mabel agrees, verbally, even though her brain is already trying to figure out if there's a new angle on the matchmaking front. Well, she can work on that later. "Well, what kind of SUPER MANLY pancakes do you want?"

"Uh, Mabel, can I just have normal pancakes?"

She opens her mouth to say _that's boring_ , and then she sees the look on Dipper's face. He had a _really_ bad day yesterday, and it's kind of maybe just a little bit her fault. "…yeah! I'll make you the MANLIEST normal pancakes ever!"

A heavy sigh. Dipper smiles at her. "Thanks, Mabel."

"Awkward sibling hug?"

"Awkward sibling hug."

Dipper's sweaty, because he's always sweaty, but feeling his solid, tense weight against her is reassuring. When he sort of relaxes into the hug along with their final "pat pat" it's even better.

"You're the best brother ever," Mabel says reassuringly, and Dipper squeezes her an extra time.

"Thanks, sis."

 **A/N:** I have a lot of feelings about trans Dipper, and I haven't yet found a fic that addresses the fact that Bill, as a being of pure energy, probably WOULDN'T notice there was something slightly different. But Dipper would still freak out about it because he's DIPPER.


End file.
